Archive: Arts & Entertainment

Kitchen Theatre Company continues its 2016-17 season and heats up the winter with Sex With Strangers, a provocative and sensuous exploration of ambition and obsession in the digital age. Sex With Strangers runs at Kitchen Theatre Company from March 12 to April 2, 2017.

In a world where the number of clicks can translate to stardom, twenty-something Ethan writes a blog of "sexcapades" that catapults him into instant celebrity and success. Forty-something Olivia is a mid-career novelist, widely unappreciated and hoping to get a second wind. When the two are waylaid in a remote cabin, the chemistry is explosive. Written by Laura Eason, best known for her work on TV's "House of Cards," Sex with Strangers investigates the confluence of ambition, success, cyber identity, and the price of fame.

Triphammer Arts Inc. will present The Pulse of an Irishman, a concert of Scottish and Irish songs arranged by Beethoven, in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. The concert will take place on Sunday, March 12, at 4:00pm at the CRS Barn Studio. A reception with the artists will immediately follow the concert.

In the mid-nineteenth century, music publisher George Thomson commissioned musical arrangements of the traditional songs of the British Isles from the finest composers of his time -- including both Beethoven and Haydn -- in an effort to preserve these songs for future generations. Beethoven tackled the commission enthusiastically, creating over 100 spritely arrangements of well-known traditional songs to be published by Thomson and performed by chamber ensemble. These tuneful and accessible pieces, appealing to a wide audience, include such favorite melodies as 'Sweet Power of Song', 'The Soldier', 'Sally in our Alley', and 'Auld Lang Syne'.

The Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, NY is presenting Plan B, a world premiere musical. This show, part of their CabarETC series, will take place on April 7 & 8 at 7:30 pm. Plan B provides a hilarious and endearing perspective on entering middle age, featuring 15 original songs. The production, directed by the Hangar's Michael Barakiva, will take place at the Hangar Theatre, located at 801 Taughannock Blvd.

Aurora, New York—Wells College Press announced the winner of its 2017 Chapbook Contest is Annie Lighthart for her manuscript, "Lantern." Her prize includes 20 copies of the letterpress-printed chapbook.

She will also read at Wells College in Aurora, N.Y., and receive a $500 honorarium plus room and board. In the tradition of the Wells College Press, her chapbook will be crafted obsessively, with hand-set title pages and hand-sewn bindings. It will be published in an edition of 150 signed and numbered copies.

Every day after school in rural Kentucky, working-class teens Dalton Chance and Pace Creagan meet beneath the railway bridge at Pope Lick Creek to practice running the track. A prospectless future emboldens the pair to play chicken with an oncoming train. When Pace turns up dead, all eyes turn to Dalton. Did he murder her? Or is there another explanation?

Partly based on real events, The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek by MacArthur genius award winner Naomi Wallace draws on the playwright's experiences growing up in Kentucky; the play will run March 3–11 at Cornell's Schwartz Center. The real Pope Lick Creek runs through Louisville and is home to a massive railroad bridge that has been the scene of tragic deaths similar to the incident central to Wallace's play. Nick Fesette, a PhD candidate in Cornell University's Department of Performing and Media Arts, directs The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek and explains that Wallace recalls historical and personal events "as a metaphor to reflect on class, gender, and the violence of poverty during the Great Depression."

"Root Map," an international theater collaboration about borders and migration, will have a one-time-only performance on Thursday, March 2, at 8 p.m. in Cornell University's Barnes Hall.

The international collaboration includes academics and artists with diverse cultural heritages across Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and South America; the international cast includes actors from Cornell and Kolkata, India. The solution to having writers and actors on separate continents was simple: hold meetings and rehearsals via Skype.

Simon Shaheen brings to life the Arab music of Al-Andalus and blends it with the ubiquitous art of flamenco in his newest production 'Zafir,' a program of instrumental and vocal music and dance. This program does not pretend to recreate the music of a bygone era, but rather to renew a relationship that began more than a thousand years ago. It reveals the commonalities of a music born in cultural centers of Iraq and Syria, blew like a zephyr (zafir, in Arabic) across the waters of the Mediterranean to Al-Andalus, blended with elements of Spanish music, and was brought back across the sea to North Africa where it flourished in the cities of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia.

'All in the Timing' is a collection of six of the funniest one-act plays ever – monkeys banging away at typewriters, imaginary languages, the world's worst first date, and more. Running to Places (R2P) presents the hilarious comedy Feb. 24-26 at Beverly J. Martin Elementary School (BJM), 302 W Buffalo St., Ithaca. (Note: the show may not be suitable for the youngest children.)

'Sure Thing' features a first date where the fumbling couple gets countless do-overs; in 'Words, Words, Words,' three monkeys typing into infinity will eventually create Hamlet – if they can overcome their writers' block; 'The Universal Language' explores whether a new (gibberish) language can be the key to happiness; "Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread" is a musical parody of minimalist composer Philip Glass and his reminiscences about an old flame; 'The Philadelphia' finds a man ensnared in an unlucky and anomalous pocket of reality; and in "Variations on the Death of Trotsky" Marxist revolutionary and politician Leon Trotsky has died – but don't tell him that.

The State Theatre of Ithaca, M&T Bank and The Ithaca Times continue the 2016/17 Classic Movie Series with comedies THIS IS SPINAL TAP Friday, February 24th at 8pm, and The Mighty Ducks Saturday, February 25th at 4pm. Tickets are on sale now.

One of the most popular mockumentaries ever made, THIS IS SPINAL TAP follows a legendary British heavy metal band on an American comeback tour accompanied by a fan who is also a film-maker. The resulting (mock) documentary, interspersed with powerful performances of Tap's pivotal music and profound lyrics, candidly follows a rock group heading towards crisis, culminating in the infamous affair of the eighteen-inch-high Stonehenge stage prop.

The Board of Directors of Ithaca's Kitchen Theatre Company has launched a $188,000 campaign to 'Burn the Mortgage' in honor of Artistic Director Rachel Lampert's retirement and her twenty years of visionary leadership.

James Morrisey, President of the Kitchen Theatre Company Board of Directors, explains, "Rachel Lampert has worked tirelessly to bring plays by women, artists of color, and new works to the region. She has broadened KTC's diversity on stage, back stage as well as in the audience. Under Rachel's guidance, KTC 's reputation has grown locally and nationally among playwrights, actors, directors, donors and grant making organizations. We want to 'Burn the Mortgage' so when Rachel steps down in June 2017, she will know the building is secure as the permanent home of Kitchen Theatre Company. When completed, the 'Burn the Mortgage' campaign will provide improved fiscal health for the theater, assuring the 'important conversations' continue with our new Artistic Director."

The Wells College Theatre & Dance Department is proud to present the Spring 2017 production, "Juvie," written by Jerome McDonough and directed by Mary Losurdo '14. "Juvie" will be performed in the auditorium of Barler Hall on the Wells College campus on Friday, February 10, and Saturday, February 11. The house will open at 7:00 p.m. with the show beginning at 7:30 p.m.

"Juvie" is this year's February Alumni Production featuring director Mary Losurdo from the Wells class of 2014. Each February, the Department of Theatre and Dance invites an alumnus/alumna of Wells to participate in a production as a playwright, director, choreographer, actor, dancer or designer. Mary Losurdo is currently living and working in Los Angeles, Calif., where she leads an a cappella group and where she has worked with the Pantages Theatre and the Murder Mystery Company. Mary says of her Wells education, "I was challenged to see my surroundings differently, and to see the world as a stage."

On Sunday, February 26, the Ithaca Gay Men's Chorus (IGMC) will perform 'Mister Act, IGMC gets into the Habit' at 3:00 PM in the First Baptist Church, located in Ithaca's historic Dewitt Park at 309 North Cayuga Street. 

This concert will include a variety of Broadway musical numbers from shows including: The Sound of Music, Songs for a New World, Sister Act, Wicked, Next to Normal and more. This winter concert gives the chorus an opportunity to highlight small group numbers, solos and full chorus selections, and performances by guest artists. Guests in this concert will be local singers Ellen Jackson and Nick Roscoe. Both have been seen many times with a variety of Ithaca performing groups.